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Globalization and institutions: the Bank aims to set agenda

15 December 1998

The World Bank’s World Development Report for next year will tackle the thorny questions of which institutions can direct economic, social and environmental policies in an age of globalization. It will look at global and local level organisations and discuss the implications of rapid urbanisation.

At the supranational level it will examine mechanisms and policies which promote trade liberalisation, financial stability, resilience against contagion. An environment chapter will look at biodiversity, climate change and fisheries.

The urban section will concentrate on transport and waste issues.

It is questionable whether the Bank is willing to take a detached and critical look at how the process of global economic integration might be rethought, even after the East Asian crisis. It is unclear how this WDR links with the poverty one which follows it.

The Bretton Woods Project has an early outline which is available to NGOs.

The Bretton Woods Project is a UK-based NGO that challenges the World Bank and IMF and promotes alternative approaches. We serve as an information provider, watchdog, networker and advocate. Our flagship publications are the Bretton Woods Observer, a quarterly critical review of developments at the World Bank and IMF, and the Bretton Woods Bulletin, an online update of news and action on the institutions.